In modern motor vehicles there is generally the problem that the vehicle driver is supplied with a large amount of information relating to his motor vehicle. This overstimulation of the vehicle driver by acoustic and optical signals causes the driver to be distracted from the traffic.
As a result, the vehicle driver has a tendency to fail to hear or to ignore the signals, or he can no longer assign the signals to their cause. An accelerator pedal unit of the generic type mentioned at the beginning avoids all the disadvantages of optical and acoustic systems: it is a suitable man/machine interface for longitudinal dynamics functions (inter-vehicle distance information, speed limitation and cruise control) as well as for displaying warnings of hazards or for displaying gearshift displays for a manual shift transmission.
DE 10 2004 025 829 B4, which is incorporated by reference, discloses a device in which the opposing force element is formed by a torque motor with fixed field coils on the stator and with a magnetic disk, with opposing magnetization at various locations, on the rotor. Such torque motors are distinguished by the fact that they make available very high torques. Electrodynamic and geometric nonlinearities are disadvantageous and lead to a situation in which, when identical electrical actuation occurs an identical force sensation is not generated at the driver's foot.